Salvation By Grace

by L.A. Hickling, Derby | Category: Contending For The Faith | May 1971

Man needs salvation

The problem of the spiritual and moral sickness of mankind is no new one. It has accompanied the human race down the ages, and though in these days improved standards of living and of education may have done a good deal for man, his nature is not changed. Very early in man's history "the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually" (Gen. 6:5), and it is very evident that fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, covetousness and a host of other evil things still proceed from within. The true diagnosis of the trouble and its remedy is beyond the skill of man. We must seek it in the Bible.

To discover the root of the trouble we must go back to the early days of man's history and see him toiling to produce his bread outside the place that God had prepared for him, from ground that brought forth so plentifully the thorns and thistles that frustrated his efforts. The cause lay in his refusal to accept God's pattern for his life and his wish to develop along lines contrary to God's will for him. His fellowship with his Maker was cut off and

"through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin; and so death passed unto all men, for that all sinned" (Rom. 5:12).

So the Scripture plainly asserts that man's downfall was due to sin-disobedience to the commands of God. There is no escaping the scriptural assessment that "all have sinned".

The Scriptures are equally clear as to the consequences of sin:

"The soul that sinneth, it shall die" (Ezek. 18:4). "The wages of sin is death" (Rom. 6:23).

When sin came into the life of man he became "alienated from the life of God" (Eph. 4:18). Instead of rejoicing in communion with God and service for Him according to His direction, he became incapable of spiritual activity and development-dead in trespasses and sins. And he could look forward, after the death of his natural body, only to an eternity of separation from God. As men living on the earth we have never known such a separation for, whatever may be our attitude to God, He nevertheless "giveth to all life, and breath, and all things" (Acts 17:25) and "He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and the good" (Matt. 5:45). The awful realization of complete separation from Him is expressed in Scripture as "the second death, even the lake of fire" (Rev. 20:14).

It is an essential preliminary to salvation that men are brought to a realization of their standing by nature before God. It is part of the work of the Holy Spirit "to convict the world in respect of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgement" (John 16:8).

God's way of salvation

What then is the remedy? Is it possible to have salvation and to know it? The Scriptures say that God willeth that all men should be saved (1 Tim. 2:4). How may this be brought about?

'What must I do', has oft been asked,

'Eternal life to gain?'

Man anxious seems for any task,

If he may this obtain.

Man is ready always to trust in his own ability to provide a solution to his problems and God has blessed him with an endowment by which he can do wonderful things. But in the matter of salvation from the penalty due to sin there is nothing he can do by his own efforts, nor can any plan of his own formulation avail. Long ago, Naaman, stricken with a mortal disease, had his own ideas about how the cure could be brought about, but his thoughts were not God's thoughts and his cure was not to come that way (see 2 Kings, chap. 5). No less today whatever may be the achievements of man

"the redemption of their soul is costly, and must be let

alone for ever" (Psalm 49:8).

Convicted of sin and of estrangement from God men have often tried to merit His favour by what they can do by seclusion and by buffeting of the body, by striving to do the right thing following the example of Jesus Christ, by outward conformity to religious observances or by the social gospel of doing good to others. These are ways that seem right to man, but they are not God's way. The plain statements of the Bible leave no doubt about it:

"By the works of the law shall no flesh be justified in His sight" (Rom. 3:20).

"Not by works done in righteousness, which we did ourselves, but according to His mercy He saved us" (Titus 3:5). "Who saved us, ... not according to our works" (2 Tim. 1:9).

"A man is not justified by the works of the law" (Gal. 2:16). Works cannot save, "But where sin abounded, grace did abound more exceedingly" (Rom. 5:20). God, loving those who had rebelled against Him, took the initiative, and the grace of God appeared, bringing salvation to all men.

"God commendeth His own love toward us, in that, while

we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom. 5:8).

God Himself provided the way of salvation, though it meant

His own beloved and eternal Son leaving His throne in heaven to live and die upon earth that this purpose might be achieved. He became obedient to death and gave Himself at Calvary that sinners, who merited nothing from God, might be freed from the penalty of sin. His dying cry, "It is finished", showed that the work He came to do was completed. On the third day God raised Him from the dead and He went back to heaven because His work on earth was done. The apostle Paul contemplates the wonder of this when he reminds the Ephesian saints that, though they were dead in trespasses and sins,

"By grace have ye been saved through faith; and that not of

yourselves; it is the gift of God" (Eph. 2:8).

Salvation is all of God's grace and nothing of ourselves. Through faith and only through faith guilty sinners may obtain for themselves the fruits of the finished work of Christ at Calvary.

To the jailor at Philippi, unready for death and anxious to know what he must do to prepare himself to meet God, the answer was straightforward and simple, "Believe on the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved" (Acts 16:31). Not a work to do, but simply to trust on what the Lord Jesus Christ had already done. To the person today who has experienced the work of the Spirit in the heart the message is the same:

Believe ... and be saved.

Christ has done the mighty work,

Nothing left for us to do,

But to enter on His toil,

Enter on His triumph too.

L.A. Hickling, Derby | May 1971
Contending For The Faith